that we're in the palm of His hand tonight. What a blessing to know that God is caring for those who belong to Him. Very, very biblical song. The Bible tells us that we're in His hand and nobody can pluck us out of His hand. You know, not a virus, not a trial, not a trouble, not the devil himself. I'm glad that nothing can stand between me and the Lord. The Bible says, if He's for me, who can be against me? Isn't that a blessing? Turn in your Bibles tonight, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians in your New Testament, the book of 2 Thessalonians, chapter number 2. Now, it's interesting when you come to I and II Thessalonians that every chapter in those two books makes reference to some aspect of the Lord's coming. In I Thessalonians, it has to do with the rapture. In every chapter, there is a statement about the Lord's coming for His own. When you come to II Thessalonians, the emphasis is upon the Lord's return to the earth. and His second coming to the earth. One, He comes in the clouds. The other, He comes to the earth. One's secret. The other's public. One, He's going to come as a thief in the night. Nobody's going to know it except the saved until it's all over. But for Him, when He comes a second time to the earth, it is visible. It is victorious. Every eye will see Him. And so Paul is dealing with those subjects in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. And when you come to chapter number 2, the Thessalonian believers had a case of what I want to call headline hysteria. You know a lot of folk have that today. You just get on Facebook or you get on the internet and it doesn't take long for you to see headline hysteria everywhere on newscasts, on religious broadcasting. And could this be the sign of the end? I mean the coronavirus, this pandemic, and could this be it? And I want to set some things in order. I want to calm our minds tonight because it's no different. I want to caution you not to interpret the Bible by the headlines, but interpret the headlines by the Bible. We don't look at world events and then go to our Bible and see what we can find. No, we go to our Bible and we look at the world. And it helps us to have a right idea of what God's plan is and what He's doing in our world today. And I want you to notice, if you would, in verse number 1 of 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. He says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us. As if the day of Christ is at hand, the Thessalonians had received a letter that someone had forged Paul's name to. Verse 3, Let no man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him. whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Let's pray together and ask God to help us tonight. Father, I thank You for Your Word. I thank you for the truth, Lord, the absolute truth of the Word that, Lord, we understand, according to the Bible, what's next. We understand what you're doing in our world. Now, Father, that doesn't mean we understand every detail. We don't understand every circumstance. We don't understand everything that happens. But yet, Lord, we have an understanding of your purposes in this day and in what's to come. Lord, I pray that you'll settle our hearts and minds tonight. I pray, Lord, that we wouldn't sensationalize the Scriptures, but we would stand true on what you've already spoken and said. And Father, I pray that we would help others to know the truth. And Lord, the importance of being biblical in our approach to life and how we see life and how we respond to life. And Father, we're sure to thank You for it. And Lord, help us to have the prayer of the Apostle John even so come, Lord Jesus. And we'll thank You for what You do for us tonight. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. The Thessalonian believers had headline hysteria. The cause of their panic was a false teaching that had arisen in the church. It had muddied their spiritual thinking and confused them about end-time events. As a matter of fact, you're going to find that there were people sensationalizing some of the trials and tribulations and circumstances in that day, and it shook them up. As a matter of fact, date-setters are always upsetters. They want to shake people up. They move people away from the truth about end-time events. And even in our world today, and I'll mention some others a little bit later on in the message, but using the current world situation, they want to use world events and sensationalize them and sensationalize the Scriptures in order to gain a following. Oftentimes, they cherry-pick prophetic verses and try to apply them to different events going on in the world. But most often, they're way out of context. They're nowhere near in relation to what God intended. And when you fail to interpret the Scriptures according to the context, you tend to read into the Bible rather than drawing out of the Bible what God says. And you know what? I really don't care what somebody's going to read into the Bible. I want what God says to me out of the Bible, don't you? And how important that is. And many times, preachers are doing this, broadcasters are doing this, people on the Internet, people gaining a following. They've seen some novel, not virus, but truth or verse of Scripture, idea from the Bible that nobody's seen before. And oh, there it is! But yet, friend, listen, I'm just going to tell you something. If it's new, it's probably not true. And if it's true, I can just promise you this, it's not new. Friend, aren't you glad that God's given us an ancient book that's relevant in our day, where we're living right now, and God addresses the situation at hand, and He says, let me tell you what I'm going to do, and I want you to understand what I am doing. as it relates to these things. Notice if you would, verse number 1, they were shaken in mind. Notice the Bible said, verse 2, that you be not soon shaken in mind. That same word is to describe the shaking of an earthquake. You know, when people get out of frame biblically and they get out of frame spiritually and all of that, listen, it just upsets their world. And that's what's going on in many people's lives. And that's why they're so unsettled in such anxiety and worry. Because we're not going to the Bible and understanding what God has to say. They're troubled. That means to be frightened or alarmed. Does that sound pretty much on par with where we're at today? The tense of the verb implies that this group of people, this group of Christians were in a continual state of panic, and this teaching had come to them, if you'll look in verse number 2, by spirit. Somebody had claimed to have a word from God, a prophetic utterance. They've seen something nobody's seen before, not even the Apostle Paul. Isn't that amazing? And so he came to them by letter. And then notice he went on to say, he said, nor by word, some kind of word that somebody spoken or a word of rumor, or by letter, a letter alleged to have come from Paul himself. Evidently they had spoken some, made a prophetic utterance and said something that God didn't say. There was a spoken message or sermons being preached about it. Then by letter, they had actually written a letter, sort of a false epistle like the one Paul's written to this church, and they signed his name to it. Of course, when they saw that, they're just all upset. They're out of frame. And Paul writes to them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he gives them a word of comfort. Look at verse number 1. He said, Now we beseech you, brethren. I like that word, beseech. It's a tender plea. He's coming around them, putting his arm around them. He's saying, listen, church, it's okay. Listen, you need to calm down. It's alright. Let me help you with this confusion that has unsettled your mind and shook you up. Let me settle you on the foundation of the Word of God, Paul says. And then he brings to them a word of correction. Notice he says in verse number two, he said, that you soon be not shaken in mind in the mentions by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." He wanted to correct them about what was going on. And they had thought that the day of Christ had already happened or taken place, and therefore they were fearful and panic-stricken as they thought about that. Christian, there are three days that every believer ought to understand in Bible prophecy, and I want us to look at them real quickly. The first one is found right here in verse number two, what the Bible calls the day of Christ. I want you to write out in your notes or in your Bible the rapture. The rapture, the day of Christ, is when Christ comes for His own. He catches away His bride, the saved, that are on this earth. What a beautiful day that's going to be when the Lord comes. And in a moment, a twinkling of an eye, we'll be translated, taken up from earth to heaven. What a wonderful, wonderful truth that is. And we're going to talk about what's next in the day of Christ. And they were fearful that the rapture had already taken place and that they had been left. and they were facing the judgments of the tribulation period. He also talks about another day in Thessalonians, and that's the day of the Lord, okay? And he mentions that day, if you'll look back, over in chapter 5 of I Thessalonians 1. Would you look back there? I Thessalonians chapter 1 and find if you would, excuse me, chapter 5 and find if you would verse number 2. I Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse number 2. He says here in this verse, just one book to the left, chapter 5 verse 2, For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. So the day of Christ is the rapture. Well, preacher, what's the day of the Lord? You see, the day of the Lord is mentioned 23 times in the Bible, 19 times in the Old Testament, 4 times in the New Testament. Because of the lies of these false teachers, the Thessalonians were thinking they had missed the rapture and that they were in the day of the Lord, that they were facing the judgments of the tribulation period. You see, the day of Christ will give way to the day of the Lord in which God will pour out His unmitigated judgment upon this world. for their rejection of His Son. And the Bible calls it the great day of His wrath in Revelation chapter 6 and verse number 17. And some of these false teachers had sensationalized some events that were going on in their world and they were going through some immense persecution and trials and some hardship and their lives had been upset. And they said, listen, the reason you're going through this is because Jesus has come and you're left and you're going through the day of the Lord. And they were in a panic. They thought they'd missed the rapture. And so we see that he spoke first of all the day of Christ and the day of the Lord that encompasses, and it's an extended period of time, that begins with the tribulation period and will end at the second coming when Jesus sets up His kingdom in His thousand-year reign. And I want you to look at a third day in Bible prophecy. The day of Christ is a rapture. The day of the Lord, tribulation, and kingdom on this earth. And then there's the day of God. Look in your Bibles. Go past the big book of Hebrews, James, 2 Peter. Find 2 Peter chapter number 3. Would you turn there? 2 Peter chapter number 3. Find verse number 10. Now I had determined that I wasn't going to do in-depth Bible study. I was going to preach a little more simply because you weren't here and I wasn't there and we weren't seeing each other, but the Lord's leading differently, okay? And I just believe that we can stay in tune with each other and that this is very pertinent to where we are and what we're living in and the times we live in. We want to have a right understanding of what's next. Look if you would, verse number 10. 2 Peter 3, but the day of the Lord, that's that day we talked about, the tribulation will come as a thief in the night. The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat. This is the end of it. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God? Alright, so the day of Christ is the rapture of the saints. The Day of the Lord is the tribulation period. It's the time that God is again dealing with the nation of Israel. A nation is going to be born in a day. The Lord Jesus will come. He'll set up a kingdom. The Day of the Lord is an extended period of time. The Day of Christ is an instantaneous event that will happen in a moment, a twinkling of an eye. The Day of the Lord when it comes upon this earth. is going to catch it by surprise like a thief coming in the night. But it's going to bring a time of judgment that will end in blessing and will consummate with God destroying this world as we know it. It's going to dissolve or melt away with fervent heat. Do you realize this world is going to pass away? Do you realize that? that everything in this world is one day going to burn up. Did you know that? Listen, our 401K, everything we build, everything that we have, everything in this world one day is going to burn up. It is. The earth is going to pass away, but for it is going to give away for the people of God what the Bible calls the day of God. Notice he said in verse 12, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Look at verse 13. Here it is. Nevertheless we, talking about the saved, according to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Do you know that's the final home of the saved? What you and I understand as heaven. Friend, I'm looking forward to that day when we land on our final home, the new earth. Isn't that going to be an exciting day? And the day of God, if you're wanting to know what that is in Bible prophecy, that is eternity. That's when God has finished His work so far as this world is concerned and we enter into the eternal state. And so he gives them a word of comfort. He's going to give them a word of correction here in 2 Thessalonians 2, and then he's going to give them a word of caution. Look at verse number 3. Let no man deceive you. Do you know all the way from the time of the Lord Jesus through the apostles, they warned of false teachers who would come. People who would claim to be of God. They're going to carry a Bible. They're going to speak with religious words and phrases. But yet they're going to teach things that are contrary to the Word of God. Many of them may in their minds just be truly deceived. Others they're going to use as an opportunity to gain a following and to make merchandise of the people of God so that they can rob them of their possessions, so to speak, as you give to their ministries. But yet they sensationalize the headlines sensationalize the Scriptures, and they sensationalize events, and they get people in a panic, and they whip them into a hysteria for them to follow them. God said, listen, don't be deceived. You know what, dear child of God? I don't want to be part of those who are deceived. What about you? I want to stand in the truth. And so Paul, in order to correct the confusion and calm their fears, says, let me share with you what's next, okay? And that's what we're going to do over the next several night messages. Tonight, Wednesday night, probably piece by piece, we're going to work our way through this passage and understand. And this great prophetic passage in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and understand what's next in God's plan. Now, number one, if you're taking notes tonight, is the rapture. The rapture. Look again at verse number one. Would you do that? Look again at verse number one. The Bible says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him." I love that phrase, gathering together. Do you know that's what we do when we assemble as a church? It means to be face-to-face with. We come together face-to-face. Boy, I wish you were here tonight face-to-face. I wish we were here as the family of God, worshiping together, singing together, praying together, learning together, growing together, serving together. I would love that. Face to face with. We look forward to that day when we're back together face to face. gathered not over an online live stream technology, but together personally, face-to-face in the house of God worshiping. But friend, can I tell you, there ought to be something even greater than that we're looking forward to. You say, preacher, what's that? That's when we're face-to-face with the Lord. That day when He comes, and friend, we're called up together to be with Him, and friend, we're with Him always, the Bible says. We'll never depart. Isn't that a wonderful thing? We'll be face to face with Jesus and one another. Friend, I'm looking forward to that day when the Lord comes. What about you? Matter of fact, you're going to find that he's talking about the rapture or the catching away of the saints of God. This is not two separate events, but that one event of when we're caught away to be with the Lord. He talks about that over in I Thessalonians 4. Could we look there real quickly? Back over at I Thessalonians 4. Find verse number 13. Paul had already taught them about the rapture. Notice he mentions in I Thessalonians 4.13, "...but I am not heavy to be ignorant, brethren, or without knowledge, brethren, concerning them which are asleep." He was addressing believers who had died in the Lord. They were afraid. In chapter 4, he's addressing the issue, what happens to my loved ones who die prior to the rapture? Do they miss it? And Paul is going to help them to understand that when the Lord comes, no saved person is going to miss it, whether they have died at that time, they're asleep, which speaks of the body, or whether they're living on earth at that time. No, we're all going to be a part of it. Notice what he says, "...that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." Aren't you glad tonight we're not hopeless, but we're hopeful, hope-filled? Verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Friend, do you realize that if our loved ones are in the ground asleep with the body till Jesus comes, God can't bring them with Him? He can't do that. Alright? So that tells me that sleep refers to the body and not the soul. Their body has went back to the ground as God said it would. Their body is in the grave awaiting the resurrection that day when the Lord will come. But you know what? My loved ones and your loved ones who are saved, they're with the Lord. They're right now in heaven rejoicing with Him. Isn't that a blessed thought? And God said that when Jesus comes, He's going to bring them. My granddaddy's going to come back with Him. Your loved one's going to come back with Him. Notice verse 15, For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and reign, those living on the earth, under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep." That word prevent doesn't mean that we're going to stop those in the grave from coming up. That word prevent today means to stop. But in that day, that word prevent means to go before or proceed. And here's what he's saying. That if you're alive on the earth when Jesus comes, you're not going to go up before that body's resurrected. And they're reunited. And we're going to all go up together, the Lord says. Look at verse 16. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." You know, any time you see a trump in Scripture like that, that's talking about victory. Friend, listen, this is victory over death, victory over the grave. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. That means our loved ones who are right now with the Lord, they're saved. The Lord's going to bring them back with Him in the rapture. This is going to happen so quickly, friend, listen, that no eye will see it, no ear will hear it, the world won't even be aware of it until it's over with. It's going to happen in a sudden moment of time. And in that instant, as He brings the souls of those who are in heaven with Him, their bodies will be resurrected. The graves will come open and the dead, that body is going to come up out of the grave. But friend, what went into the grave is not the same as what's coming out of the grave. Friend, listen, it went into the grave a mortal body. It will come out of that grave an immortal body. It went into the grave a corruptible body. It will come out of the grave an incorruptible body. It went into the grave a weak body. Thank God it's going to come out of the grave a powerful body. Listen, it went into the grave an earthly body, but friend, when it comes out of the grave, it'll be a heavenly body. Isn't that an exciting thing? And they're going to be reunited with their bodies, alright? And what about us, preacher? Well, look what happens in verse 17. Then we which are alive and remain, that means we're living on the earth when it happens, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Preacher, does that mean I don't get a new body? I mean, they get a new body. What about my body? Well, 1 Corinthians 15 addresses that as it talks about the resurrection and the rapture. The Bible said we're not all going to die, but everybody's going to be changed. Did you know that? So there's going to be a generation of Christians that's not going to die. But every Christian is going to be changed. We're going to get a new body. Isn't that exciting? They don't know any pain. They don't know any heartache. They don't know any heartbreak. Listen, friend, I'm looking forward to that house that God has made for us in the heavens. Isn't that a blessing? A heavenly body. and we're going to be caught up with them in the clouds. Notice the Bible said to meet the Lord in the air, face to face with the Lord. Friend, listen, we'll be face to face with each other. We'll be face to face with the Lord. There's going to be a grand heavenly reunion of the people of God. And notice this phrase, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. What a wonderful truth of Scripture. Friend, every Christian ought to be longing for this day. We ought to be living for this day. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. But when it comes to this matter of Bible prophecy, the rapture is the next event. It's what's next, so to speak. It's the next event on God's prophetic calendar. And that the Thessalonian Christians expected the rapture to take place prior to the day of the Lord or the tribulation period is obvious from the fact that they were panic-stricken that somehow they had missed it over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. and they were facing and that they were right then in the judgments of the tribulation period. And if they had been taught, listen, if they had been taught by the Apostle Paul earlier that they would go through part or all of the tribulation period, they wouldn't have been shaken in mind. They wouldn't have been panic stricken. They wouldn't have had headline hysteria. They would have been jubilant in heart because it wouldn't be long until the Lord would come. But that's not the case. Christian, listen. God has not saved us through wrath, but from wrath when it comes to the tribulation period. Friend, they weren't shouting, they were sobbing. They thought the rapture had occurred and somehow they had been left. And all that lay before them were the horrible judgments of the tribulation period. You know what happened? Their hope had been stolen. And you know what? Satan wants to steal your hope. He wants to rob your joy. He wants to keep you. He wants to paralyze. He wants to give you the paralysis of fear. Paul reminds them that that event hadn't taken place yet. He said, I'm saved and you're saved. He's writing to them. He said, I'm saved, you're saved. I'm still here because you're getting a letter from me and you're still here. And that very fact right there was proof positive that the rapture hadn't taken place and that they weren't experiencing the day of the Lord. I can imagine when this letter was delivered to this group of Christians back thousands of years ago, they probably went, we're okay. Can you imagine that? Can I tell you tonight, I want you to take a deep breath because you're okay. You're okay. Paul's saying, you don't have to sob, you can shout. God hadn't promised us wrath, but rapture. Now you say, preacher, you're not addressing where we are today. I'm going to get there. Just give me a moment. I want you to jot down I Thessalonians 5.9. That's another verse. For God hath not appointed us to wrath." He's not talking about hell in that verse. He's talking about the wrath of the tribulation period, the day of the Lord. God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation or deliverance by our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is a very general term in the Bible. And so we have to understand the context to realize the specificity of that particular way in which it's used. And in I Thessalonians 5.9, it's not dealing with the salvation of the past or the penalty of sin. It's dealing with salvation of the future judgment of the tribulation period. I'm going to be delivered. I'm not going to go through it. Listen, jot down Revelation 3.10. I'm going to read it to you. Here's another proof text. Revelation 3.10, Jesus says to a different church, "...because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from, not through, the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth." You know, I'm amazed at the times that Christians are so easily shaken. concerning future events. In World War II, when war broke out in the Middle East, there was a hysteria that the end times have come. First Gulf War, 9-11, there was the fear. I can remember the churches being packed with people because they thought the apocalypse was on the horizon. There was an unsettledness. Every time there's an unsettledness in the Middle East or maybe something in the stellar heavens, maybe some kind of phenomenon they haven't seen in their lifetime maybe something on the radio, or the TV that they hear, or an internet, or a book that's been written, or maybe like a global pandemic, or something along those lines, and then suddenly the end of the world is here. We get all upset, and be out of shape, and alarmed. And there's some preachers that will get real novel ideas and they'll be reading through something and they'll try to attach something to a verse of Scripture that really has nothing to do with what's going on in our day and they'll pin it there and they'll say, here it is, here it is. But here's the problem with that, friend. You say, preacher, what is it? We're not looking for signs. We're looking for the Savior. Paul said, let no man deceive you by any means. Don't be shaken in mind or troubled or alarmed. Oh preacher, if it's not an end time sign, then what is it? You see, matter of fact, there's always been pandemics. There's always been pandemics. We just don't have 24-7 news media back then like we do today that keeps it in front of us all the time. But yet there was pandemics in 1918, 1919. There was a pandemic in the 90s. There was the swine flu, Ebola. You can go on down the line with all of them and I'm not minimizing what we're facing right now. What I'm just saying is you can't attach Bible prophecy to an event and then determine what's going to happen next. No, you just have to take the Word of God for what it says and understand that these things happen. There's going to be earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars. There's going to be natural disasters and there's going to be sicknesses and death on a global scale that doesn't have anything to do with end time events. It's just we're living in a sin-cursed, fallen, broken world. And you see, God has a plan because Jesus didn't just redeem us, friend. He's redeemed this world, and one day He's going to make it all new. Amen? Paul said, don't be shaken in mind or troubled as Lorm. Can I just say, as long as God's people are on planet earth, not one ounce of His wrath and tribulation judgment will fall. The day of the Lord cannot begin until the church is in glory. Listen, we're not hopeless, friend. We're hopeful. We have a blessed hope. Amen? We have a blessed hope. Our gathering to gather unto Him. We'll see Him as He is. as our assistant pastor shared in a devotion this past week. Friend, there's coming a day when our face is going to become sight. We'll see Him, the One who died for us and rose again and saved us from our sins. We'll see Him face to face. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, the One who saved me by His grace. You remember that day? What a day! Glorious day that's going to be when we see Him. And it could happen at any moment. Now I want to set a truth in front of you that you need to grab hold of, alright? Turn your Bibles to I Corinthians chapter 15. Now we're done in II Thessalonians for tonight. We're going to look at one passage in I Corinthians 15 and we're going to wrap up the message for tonight. We're going to come back on Wednesday night and look at other aspects of this prophetic passage of what's next, because God has a chronological plan, a timeline of events that's going to take place, and we know the next event. What we're looking for is the coming of the Lord for His own. And I want you to look at an important verse, and you need to understand it. Look at 1 Corinthians 15, and we're going to look at two verses actually, 51 and 52, to set the context. He said, I show you a mystery. Here's what Paul's saying. Let me share with you something that's never been shared before. You're not going to find it in the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus didn't talk about it. You have to be careful of reading things into Matthew 24 and 25. It has nothing to do with the church. It has everything to do with God's plan for Israel and end time events for Israel. Nothing to do with the local church. Because if Jesus had talked about it, it wouldn't have been a mystery. Paul says, here's a Bible mystery. A Bible mystery is something that heretofore has never been shared. It's brand new. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. Not every Christian is going to die, but we shall all be changed. Every Christian is going to be changed. He's talking about the rapture. Look at verse 52, and I want you to underline three words. In a moment. Did you see that phrase? In a moment. in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." We understand that phrase in a moment as the doctrine of immanency. Now folks, this is important. You need to understand this, the doctrine of immanency. It's a teaching in the Word of God that the next event on God's prophetic calendar is the coming of the Lord for His own and it could happen in a moment at any moment. Alright? Christians, we don't have to be alarmed about what happens next. Because for us, it's glory. For us, it's to be with the Lord. For us, it's the translation, the rapture, the saints of God into heaven. It's imminent. It could happen at any moment. It'll happen in a moment. Listen, at that moment when it does happen, it'll happen with a sudden swiftness. It'll come suddenly without warning. Listen, I want you to get this. We're not looking for signs. We're looking for the Savior. You see, we have this false notion today. And I think that many times that we as preachers have contributed to this false notion. I try not to. But we've gotten this false notion through preaching even among good men that things have to be bad for Jesus to come. Where's that in the Bible? See, if He can come in a moment, at any moment, it doesn't have to be bad. How do we know we won't be having a revival when Jesus comes? See, we've just been conditioned to think that things have to be bad for the Lord to come in the rapture. And that's not true. Matter of fact, it may not be bad. It might be a good time. Matter of fact, Jesus didn't say, be ready in a bad time. Did He? No, He said you're to be ready at any time. He said for an hour that you think not is when He'll come. It might be the least suspected moment. And He's there. And He's come. What an important truth that is. You see, we're too busy looking for some bad headline to give us some kind of indication when He's going to come, when the Lord said, you just be ready because I'm going to come. That's what He says. Now folks, listen, that means we're to be looking for His appearing. If we're not looking for signs, because there's not one prophetic truth, not one prophetic event to take place. Not one. All of the signs are pointing to His coming to the earth, not the taking of the saints to heaven. All of them. Alright? We're not looking for signs. Now, can signs cast a shadow? Could we see some rumblings in our world that we be premonitions, that maybe looks like something? Absolutely! But you can't attach anything to it. You can't. Because the Lord said, I'm not to be looking for signs. I'm to be looking for His Son. Let me give you a verse. It's an encouraging hope. 2 Timothy 2.13, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. That word looking means eager anticipation. That means I'm not to be looking out here. I'm to be looking up there. You see the difference? I'm not to have an eye on what's on the horizon, I'm to have an eye on the heavens. Because He could come at any moment. And the Bible said I'm not just to look for it, I'm to love it, the Bible says. The Bible says that we're to love His appearing. It is an encouraging hope. It is a purifying hope. I John 2.18, And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. My mom. Many times when we'd need to run to the store and my sister and I, these were years ago, we were older, we'd be left at home and we were prone to get in these fights. I don't know if you and your siblings ever fought, but my sister and I tend to get into those things. And we'd tend to disrupt stuff around the house. And so mom would say, I'm stepping out and I'll be right back. Now if it was 11 a.m. and my mom said, I'm going to the store and I'll be back at 1 o'clock, do you know we would probably be fighting and tearing things up till 1259? What about you? We would do everything we could in that one minute before she walked through the door to be angel children. Isn't that true? I was looking for her, but I wasn't loving her appearing, was I? There's times I might look for my mom, but I'm not really excited about her coming because I'm not where I need to be. Or maybe I hadn't done like I should, or maybe we broke something we shouldn't have broke. I look for it, but I'm not loving it. You see the difference? And no doubt there are some Christians, they're looking for the Lord to come, but they're not loving for Him to come. You know, God says that we need to love it. We need to love His appearing, looking and loving, and let it purify us. Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Do you know if the Lord said, I'm coming March the 23rd at noon? You know what I think I'm fearful? Some people would live their lives less than what God would want to up until the very few minutes before they knew the Lord would come, and then they'd hurry up and get right. But the Lord didn't do that, did He? He said, I don't want you to just look for me. I want you to love my appearing. And I want you to be ready if I come at any moment. I want you to be ready when I come at any moment. And when you and I, when the truth of the Lord's coming, of what's next grips our heart, it'll change how we live our everyday lives because this could be the day that Jesus would come for me. And let me just share this with you. It ought to be a motivating hope. Luke 19.13, the Lord Jesus said, Occupy till I come. He said, I want you to be busy about my business till I return. You see, what happens next for the people of God is for the Lord to come. In a sudden moment of time, all the saints of God will be transported from earth to glory, gathered together unto Him, face to face with the Lord, to forever. Listen, it's going to be a jubilation day. But what happens next after that for this world is judgment. It is. For instance, the tribulation period. Those left behind at the rapture will be engulfed by the events of the tribulation period, a time so awful, so horrific, I can assure you that we don't want our loved ones to be here. We don't want anybody to be here. That's why it ought to motivate us to labor about it, to share the gospel. Friend, if you're here and not saved tonight, you need to be saved. And when I say here, that means you're watching live stream. There's not anybody in here except a few people that help sing and put the service on. That little handful. You want to make sure. You want to know that you're saved. I sure don't want the Lord to come. I wouldn't want Him to come and me be left because I wasn't saved. How important it is to know for sure you're saved than number two, to see somebody else saved. It calms my heart to know that, friend, listen, as long as I'm on planet Earth, the Lord hasn't come. You know why? Because He's promised when He comes that I'm going to be with Him. I tell you what, I'm going to wait till the rapture takes place, and then I'm going to know it's all true, and then I'm going to fall down on my knees and get saved." Well, you know, it won't happen that way. Because God says that if you reject Him now, you won't be able to receive Him then. That's what he says. He said that we'd be sent strong delusion. We're going to talk about that a little bit later on. You see, that's why not only is the coming of the Lord imminent, but that means it could happen at any moment. Friend, that's why God says that today's the day of salvation, that this moment is the most important time in anybody's life to be saved. Not to put it off, not to wait, but to trust Him as Savior today. And listen, if maybe you're not right with the Lord, to get right with the Lord. Or maybe if you're not serving the Lord, to start serving the Lord. If you don't have a passion for souls and a concern for the lost, to get that concern for the unsaved. You see, what's next is those who are saved are going to be face to face with Jesus. Friend, listen. It doesn't matter what happens in the Middle East tomorrow. It doesn't matter what happens anywhere else in the world tomorrow. It doesn't matter. Okay? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what book you might read. It doesn't matter what you might come across on the Internet. It doesn't matter what novel verse somebody might pull out and attach something to it to make it seem like something different than what God has said already. It doesn't matter. What you need to do is hold on to the truth of the Word of God, that what's next for the people of God is the coming of the Lord and us being face to face with Him. And that's all we need to be looking for. And until then, that doesn't mean that I won't go through hard times. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to go through trials or struggles. That doesn't mean that some Christians are not going to face persecution. It doesn't mean that there's not going to be times of sickness and death on this planet. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that there's not going to be an earthquake or a war. It doesn't mean that. But here's what it does mean. It means that these are not necessarily signs of anything. It's just the progress of time until God sends His Son for us. And we need to be busy about His business till He comes. That's what He says. I don't have to start trying to read what's going on. I just need to be busy doing what He told me to do. Can I show you one more verse? I think this is very applicable and I promise I'm going to be done. Turn to the book of Acts. Book of Acts chapter number 2. I was in Nicaragua. I'd never seen this in this passage before. I was listening through an interpreter because the national pastor, the Nicaraguan pastor, was preaching to his people and I didn't understand a word he said. I was thankful for the missionary that was after the service was over that gave me a synopsis of what he preached. And he preached a truth. that has stuck with me since the mid-90s. I want you to look, if you would please, in verse number 10. What happens in verse number 10 is Jesus is taken up to heaven and there's a promise that He's going to come back. Look at verse 10. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in wide apparel. So here's the disciples. They're gathered there on the Mount of Olives and they're watching. as the Lord is going up into heaven and they're just standing there gazing. And their eyes are fixed on heaven. And the Lord had told them He was going to come. He did. But you know what? He didn't tell them to stand around gazing. He said, I want you to get busy. And don't you look at verse number 11. The angels, which also said, you men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? What are you doing standing around here staring up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manners you've seen Him go into heaven." He said, why are you standing around here idle, gazing up there? He said, He's already told you you're coming. Why don't you get busy doing what He told you to do out there? I thought, wow. You see, too busy, we're gazing. And God said, why don't you just quit gazing? I want you to get busy. Get busy till I come." It's a motivating hope. Isn't that a blessing? Friend, listen. What's next? The Lord's going to come. Christian, that ought to just rejoice our heart. Settle our minds that what we're facing right now is not some type of end time sign. It's not some kind of prophecy being fulfilled. It's not some kind of sign to the world of a coming apocalypse or the end of the world. Friend, it's just a reminder that we live in a sin-cursed and broken world that man brought on himself when he sinned in the garden. And we've been living in a sin-cursed world, broken world ever since. And bad things happen in our world. But thank God Jesus came and redeemed our world and one day He's going to make it all new. Isn't that a blessing? And we need to be busy in our world today for Him till He comes and God turns the next chapter in His plan for this planet.